1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to packaging trays for use in holding food items and, more particularly, relates to a molded packaging tray having a bottom configuration which holds liquids by capillary action, enabling use of the tray for transparent overwrap packaging of meat, poultry, fish and other liquid bearing comestibles.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In many modern food retailing operations, such as in supermarkets, meat and produce markets and the like, there are customarily employed food trays molded from wood or paper pulp or from various plastic material, for instance, foamed plastic, for the display and packaging of meats, fish, poultry and other produce or comestibles. Generally, these trays are relatively shallow rectangular flat-bottomed trays having outwardly inclined side walls, into which the commodities are placed, and thereafter a transparent material, such as heat sealable cellophane or heat shrinkable or stretchable plastic film, is tightly wrapped and sealed about the tray bottom to form an attractive retail package. This type of package is extremely neat in appearance, forms a protective arrangement for the commodity contained therein and allows prospective customers to view its contents, so as to greatly assist in the sale of the commodities.
Many commodities, such as meat, poultry and fish, which are packaged in this manner contain liquids which exude therefrom to the tray bottom, where they freely move, creating an unsightly appearance. When such trays are displayed in so-called "shingle stack" vertical arrangement, an unsightly liquid bead extends along the lower edge of the tray. The poultry industry in particular has attempted to remove the appearance of such liquids from packaged poultry products to improve product appearance.
In contemporary poultry processing operations, all poultry products are processed at a temperature of 28.degree. F., which has become an industry standard. When poultry is cut, packaged, transported and displayed with this temperature maintained, the liquid within the poultry parts is frozen and thus entrained and does not exude out of the poultry parts into an associated packaging tray. At this temperature, the poultry itself, however, does not freeze and retains the "feel" and appearance of a fresh product. However, poultry is now typically cut and packaged by a central processor, who then ships the packaged poultry products many miles to a distribution location from which the product is then redistributed to local foodstores. This presents the opportunity, for example, during careless distribution or display, for the poultry product to rise above 32.degree. F., at which point the liquids exude therefrom into the packaging tray. To combat this problem, poultry processors have begun placing absorption pads on the generally flat bottom of the packaging tray to absorb liquids. The absorption pad retains liquids therein, thereby improving product appearance. However, there are problems associated with the use of absorption pads.
Because the different poultry parts exude different amounts of liquid, e.g., drumsticks exude less liquid than breasts, a poultry processor must generally stock pads of different thicknesses and thus absorption capacities for each tray size which is used to package poultry products. A large stock of pads of differing thicknesses may therefore be required. In addition, the processor must employ additional workers or machinery to select and load pads of differing thickness into the trays, depending on the poultry parts to be packaged therein. Another problem with absorption pads is that it is impossible to fully utilize their absorption capacity because of the compression of the pad beneath the poultry parts, which occurs from the weight of the poultry and the tight overwrapping which occurs. Because of this loss of liquid retention ability, for a given amount of liquid to be absorbed, the pad must be thicker than would otherwise be required for liquid absorption.
The present invention is directed at minimizing problems associated with the use of absorption pads for absorbing liquids in the packaging of liquid bearing commodities.